divendres, 27 d’abril de 2012

L'espavilat

Josep Borrell, a former president of the European Parliament and an ex-minister in Spanish socialist governments, has been forced to resign as president of the European University Institute (EUI) in the face of allegations of a conflict of interest.

Borrell is being paid €300,000 a year as a board member of the Spanish sustainable-energy company Abengoa, a post he has held since July 2009, when he left the European Parliament. The EUI apparently only became aware of this in recent weeks, after comments in the Spanish press.

Under the rules of the EUI, a postgraduate research institute set up in the 1970s and now supported by 19 European national governments, Borrell should have declared his financial interest.